Tell of your ghoulies and ghosties

Ghosts are a topic sure to spark lively debate around any dinner table or pub bar.

It’s a polarised subject – you either believe or you don’t, and I must admit to falling into the latter category.

I’m a sceptic to all things ethereal.

At a push, however, I’ll confess I secretly hope to be proved wrong and I suspect I’m far from being alone in that.

There’s certainly something that cuts to the core of our senses where the supernatural is involved.

Even as a non-believer, reading about, watching or ultimately being in the presence of something inexplicable sets the hairs on end.

Farms seem to be a recurring theme in many haunting tales.

And the history and isolation of such places suggest that if ghosts do exist then a farm would be a good place to find one.

Many fields, farmhouses and village pubs claim to have had a paranormal manifestation.

When you begin to wade through the documented sightings, you get an idea that with that amount of evidence perhaps there is something to it.

Hounds from Hell stalking chickens in Essex, miracle healing fields in Flintshire, Roman chariots plummeting into ditches in Wythall, phantom pigs fighting and snorting on moonless nights in Cholesbury, mysterious pipe music emanating from under a farmhouse in Arbroath – the list goes on and on.

And for each of these more distinctive hauntings, there seems to be dozens of reports of the plain old bump-in-the-night type incidents.

But the proof is in the ectoplasm and one sure-fire way to convert any sceptic of the supernatural is to come face-to-face with a ghost.

So with that in mind, Farmers Weekly is going to conduct our own ghost-hunting experiment.

We want to find Britain’s most haunted farm or farmhouse with a view to sending an unlucky reporter and photographer along to look for sightings or signs of ghosts.

So if your farmhouse or farm buildings are home to unearthly goings on – and you think it could qualify for the accolade Farmers Weekly’s Most Haunted House 2006 – then email us telling us why by 8 September at fwfarmlife@rbi.co.uk

There’s a 200 prize on offer for the occupant of the winning house – so don’t delay, make your presence felt by emailing us.

Farm Ghosts

Electric presence A farmhouse bedroom is haunted by an entity which wakes people with a brief electric shock. Amersham Common.

Woman in a crinoline gown She drifts silently through a farmhouse and rides a white horse down the lane. Great Holland.

Black Cat Appears once every 10 years in a field where a WWII plane crashed, killing the animal in the process. Poynton Green.

Fox A creature so cunning that it was never caught by the local hunt, and now gloats by sitting on the golf club walls. Newton Abbot.

Shepherd Walks across a field and heads towards the river in early hours of the morning. Gibbet’s Marsh, Rye.